mhoran89

Don't forget to Venmo me when I save you a ~$1150 repair bill.
Just kidding... Happy Holidays Everyone!

Seriously though, if they tell you the radiator grille shutter system is the culprit don't let them slide it under the table back to you... pull the emissions warranty card and tell them they have to fix it. After this thread had started and I went through this ordeal... I have not seen anyone get denied coverage unless it was your own fault i.e. - you tuned the car's software.

texassoccer

I got the Drive System Malfunction on Audi Q7 2017 model. Took the car to Audi Dealer. Dealer wanted to charge $600 for Re-programming and not sure about what is causing the issue(could be active grill shutter fault)
After the re-programming I drove the car for 20 to 30 miles and the same service engine light and Drive system malfunction came back. After stopping the car and restarting the car the message went away.
Has any one had the problem and how did you fix it?

Really appreciate any input. Thank you in advance!

mbs

I've seen the message while parked idling for 20 minutes. It appeared, I cursed, and it went away about 5 minutes later. It reappeared again for 5 minutes, and I haven't seen it since. IN my case, the check engine light never came on.

mhoran89

I have seen it go away after restarting the car. If you’re throwing a shutter code and the car is saying drive system malfunction and is hesitating go take it in again. You shouldn’t pay a thing for any repair. Tell them it’s covered under federal emissions warranty since the car threw a check engine light and get a loaner. If need be take a look at TSB referenced earlier in this thread and give them the number. Best of luck! Let us know what happens.

my dealer said they could reprogram computer per TSB but said it most likely won’t fix it. I told them not to and just do the motor replacement so I didn’t mess with my APR tune. Their TSB starts with new software. If that doesn’t solve problem (and you’ll know next day if the shutter motor fails) then they will do the motor. I would tell them to do as TSB states with software and drive car. They will quickly realize it’s hardware related and you’ll get a free software update in the meantime. The most you should pay for the whole thing might be $150 for a diagnostic fee. But they should cover it once they realize it’s TSB and federal emissions warranty related. That is if it’s the shutter motor that failed and you’re under 7yr/70k or whatever the FEM is.

Redddog

Mhoran, when you say you're not eligible because you tuned your engine, what does that mean?

mhoran89

I am not running factory ECU software. The car is tuned by APR to have another 100 HP or so... it's their Stage 1 91 octane tune.

What this means in the grand scheme of things is the federal emissions warranty has been voided. Just as anything I wanted to put under Audi warranty while I was on a factory warranty that's engine or drivetrain related would be voided (but I tuned after warranty expired). The Federal Emissions Warranty and Audi Warranty are valid if the car is not "modified". Or if Audi cannot prove that the modification did cause the failure. My dealer did not want me to get TD1 flagged, because if something else failed that had a TSB with a procedure that did not call out flashing or checking ECU, I might have a fighting chance to get it covered under the FEW. They had seen this issue before and recommended just replacing the actuator, and it did solve the issue.

The TSB for the grille/radiator shutter motor failure starts off with verify the codes and issue. Then flash ECU with new software that supposedly helps this issue. Clear codes and drive vehicle and see if concern goes away. If it does not, then the actuator/motor needs to be replaced that opens/closes the radiator/grille shutters in front of the vehicle. My dealer explained that if they plug into the ECU and go to update the software they may see the ECU flash counter higher than what the Audi mothership mainframe expects. That could flag my car as TD1 (aftermarket tuned) and prevent me from getting the repair covered under FEW. Same thing could happen if they disregard the flash counter but they will bounce the software off the mainframe mothership and see that it is different than what is expected. When expensive repairs like this are covered under warranty, Audi checks for more things to see if there is a possible underlying reason they could deny the repair under warranty. Audi has the ability to compare flash counter or the actual code against their expected software version on a car. This came under the more spotlights when tuned folks were trying to get the V8 4.0T turbo failures (oil feed screen clogs and you get bearing and ultimately turbo failure) covered under warranty or FEW and then Audi's first check when applying that TSB was to check if car was tuned. My A8L 4.0T was tuned and I saw the issues and dumped the car because I did not want to play roulette with a 10K bill for two new turbos...

Anyway, let me know if this makes sense. If not I can explain further. But the long story short is "you have to pay to play" if you are tuning cars with aftermarket software.

LuckyTT

I have a 2019 TT Roadster with this Drive System Malfunction issue. Originally happened about a month ago under hard acceleration. The car lost power. It would run, but sluggishly like it was bogging down. The warning light went off and it drove normally after a restart. The dealer identified the code and performed TSB 2053040/2 repair. Apparently something to do with the throttle software. All was good until last night when it happened again. Will be taking to the dealer this week. The car is extremely low mileage and not tuned.

NOTW

MHORAN89, you just saved me 2850/- quoted for replacing grill shutter blinds/motor etc, bumped across your share, forwarded it to Audi and Voila.. all cost picked up by 1E1 warranty...

NOTW

You just saved me 2850/- quote for entire grill shutter assembly/motor.... I showed them TSB you shared , they didn't even know about it I guess... anyway car fixed and out of gate at no cost to me.. Thanks a lot man.

mhoran89

That is over $5k now I have saved folks. My venmo @ is the same as my username here...

Glad I could help more fellow Q7 owners out. It's a shame these cars have this issue... but what is worse is how the dealers don't look to help the consumers and put it back on AoA when something like this happens... I guess that is what these forums are for!